DMZ Defector Had to Run After Jeep Lost Wheel

posted by Rob Quinn -

Nov 14, 2017

Photo Credit: Getty Images

A North Korean soldier fired on by his former comrades during a desperate attempt to defect across the DMZ Monday was shot at least five times but is expected to survive, South Korean authorities say. Officials say the soldier drove a jeep toward the Joint Security Area—the only portion of the DMZ where South and North Korean troops stand face-to-face—but was forced to make a run for it when a wheel came loose, theBBCreports; the APdescribes one of the car's wheels as falling in a ditch.

He "continued fleeing south across the line as he was fired upon by other soldiers from North Korea," according to the US-led United Nations command. South Korean troops crawled to rescue the man after he took cover behind a building on their side.